Leadership Lake County sees bright future (with video)

Jeff Forman/JForman@News-Herald.com

Jessie B. Baginski is the new executive director of Leadership Lake County. Baginski, a native of New Orleans, decorates her office with Crescent City memorabilia, including posters from the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.

When Jessie Baginski learned that she was chosen executive director of Leadership Lake County, she was attending an educational conference about 5,000 miles away in Honolulu.

"I literally took a red-eye home, landed, changed clothes and reported to work," she said. "No two days are ever the same. I get to work with people in leadership positions within their companies, graduates of our program, leaders within the education field and across all of the industries."

Since taking over the top job in January, Baginski and her staff have created a new leadership program called Community Builders. The five-month program -- which is set to commence Jan. 14 -- is geared specifically toward those in entry-level management and those "frontline" employees in nonmanagerial positions looking to grow their careers with a company.

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"A really great frontline employee who can demonstrate everyday leadership skills, which really involve just good ethical decision making and behaviors, is going to make a huge impact on the success of the business," Baginski said.

Because of increasing demand, the nonprofit organization is poised to raise class sizes to 40 people from 35 beginning next year.

"As we move forward, businesses, organizations and communities are realizing how important good, strong and ethical leadership is," Baginski said. "I think our programs will continue to gain in importance and relevance for our community."

For instance, in the last 27 years, more than 850 people have taken part in the organization's Signature Leadership Program, with another 35 people set to graduate in June. While the number of attendees may have dwindled in years past, Baginski is starting to see a spike in the number of small and medium-sized businesses, along with nonprofit agencies, that are signing up members of their management staff to experience it firsthand.

Baginski said the goal of these leadership programs is to engage and develop future leaders in and out of the office.

"It's more than caring about the bottom line of the business, it's caring about whether this is a good community to begin a family, raise a family and to age gracefully in," she said. Baginski added that program participants also are encouraged to be civically engaged in the county on nonprofit boards.

The Youth Leadership Academy was created in 2003 for sixth-graders in public and private schools in Lake County. As part of the program, these students adopt a community service project called S.S. Kids. They raise about $10,000 annually to help purchase more than 2,000 school supplies for needy children.

Baginski said the organization frequently receives more than 60 applications a year for the Youth Leadership Academy. Because of the popularity of this program, they have upped enrollment to 42 from 34.

Meanwhile, the Junior Leadership Program is open to high school juniors in the county. Next year, these teens hope to raise awareness of poverty in the area. They hope to collect items such as diapers and toilet paper to give to a local church which distributes these items.

Baginski hopes in the future that the organization can expand some of these youth leadership programs to include children and teens in other grades.

"But as with any nonprofit, we have to be able to make sure they can be funded either by grants or private sponsorships and they are sustainable," Baginski said.

The 17 people who make up Leadership Lake County's Board of Trustees have hashed out a three-year strategic plan based on five goals.

The first is to build strength in adult and youth programming by increasing the positive impact on individuals, organizations and the community. Second is enhancing the image and visibility of the organization, along with a stronger network base with the organization's alumni. The other two include modifying the governing structure and operations and finally, developing a comprehensive, multiyear diversified revenue generation plan.

The funding sources for these programs come from a combination of tuition, grants and corporate sponsorships.

"I could not do what I do if I didn't have an exemplary board of directors," Baginski said.

Anyone interested in finding out more information about Leadership Lake County can log on to www.leadershiplakecounty.org or call 440-352-7520.